Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 15

Like a classic novel come to life, the first-years have encountered the notorious Captain Ahab as their latest instructor with a nightmare assignment: kill the legendary white whale Moby Dick...or die trying!

Chp. 15: Ocean Island Tour (3): The (Secret) Great Operation vs. Moby Dick

135.
Ahab: Kill him! Your test is for all of you to give me Moby Dick!! Therefore, you’ll act on a great operation to defeat Moby Dick----!!
Momotarou: Fufufu, so Captain Ahab has had a hand and leg taken by the white whale, turning him into a demon of revenge…………it’s as if Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” is real.
(TN: Well Momotarou has finally acknowledged the obvious…BTW: the actual name of “Moby Dick” in Japanese isn’t literally “Moby Dick” but “Hakugei”, which use the same exact kanji as “white whale”...or when mentioned in this manga, is read with the katakana for “Moby Dick”)
Matsuo: A novel………!? What happened at the end of the tale? Surely Moby Dick was defeated and there’s a happy ending.
Momotarou: No, the exact opposite.
Momotarou: Starting with the protagonist of Captain Ahab, who alone wished for him, everyone who faced Moby Dick ended up dying.
(TN: Not quite true…just sort of hope one of them has “Ishmael” as their middle name)
Matsuo: They…all died……!!

136.
Ahab: There, we’ve done it! First we’ll be starting with our (Secret) “Great Love-Love Attack Operation”---!!
Student 1: Wh…what’s that!?
Student 2: What are we doing making a bad-mood paper-mache female whale?

137.
Ahab: Orya—shouldn’t you row with spirit--!!
Ahab: Fufufu, we’ll lure out Moby Dick in the form of a seductive female whale and suddenly stab him with harpoons while he’s unprepared……!! Surprised? That’s the story behind the (Secret) “Great Love-Love Attack Operation”.
Togashi: I’m so dumbfounded I can’t speak.
Ahab: But it’s strange. It’s already close to three hours somehow we’ve done this, and yet that Moby Dick hasn’t appeared. We—ll.
Student: It’s obvious, dummy. Will that thing be captured by a fake whale?
Ahab: Well, he’s so shy that his embarrassment won’t let him come out……
Ahab: N~~!?

138.
Everyone: It’s Moby Dick--!!
Ahab: Why are you being so careless---!! Now! Everyone fire harpoons---!!
Students: O…ossu.
Ahab: Wahhahaha, we’ve completely caught him.

139.
Student: He’s…laughing…………
Tazawa: Mo…Moby Dick is laughing at us.
Students: Uwaaa---!!
Ahab: Damn that Moby Dick. I guess he doesn’t show interest in female whales…Is that whale actually gay?
(TN: This is a bizarre joke: Ahab calls Moby Dick “gay”, but a kanji below it also shows that it also refers to “gei”, which is another reading for the kanji for “whale”)

140.
Ahab: O—K, the next I’m sure will be successful!! The (Secret) “Great Sky High Operation”--!!
Togashi: Damn, why must they look at me like that again? It really seems that I was born under a bad star.
Ahab: Even the invincible battleship Yamato, the pride of the Japanese navy during WWII, was sunk by its tragic largeness by an enemy attack from the sky. Therefore it won’t be difficult if we attack that Moby Dick with dynamite from the sky.
(TN: A bit of historical backing: the Yamato, one of the largest and most famous battleships in WWII on Japan’s side, was sunk during the Battle of Okinawa in April, 1945 when bombarded by American planes that hit it’s weaponry, being unable to sustain it’s damages and taking down the vice-fleet admiral and all on board)

141.
Students: Sorya, give it more rope--!! Send him further out to sea----!!
Togashi: Do…don’t kid around. What will happen if the rope cuts or there’s a hole? Where I am, I’ll be blown away to America……………

142.
Togashi: There it is---!!
Togashi: You a**hole! It’s difficult with whatever he takes, no matter how many people. I’ll make you realize the power of humans, you monster--!!
Togashi: Soryaa, bombs away---!!

143.
Togashi: Huh…!!
Togashi: Aah!!
Matsuo: O…ossu, captain, so…something happened and it’s flying this way!!
Ahab: Idiot, what’s confusing them?
Ahab: Th…that’s!?

144.
Students: Hie---!!
Togashi: D…damn, Moby Dick bit us in the butt…
Matsuo: N…no no~~!!
Tazawa: No matter how smart we are, he’s got the upper hand.
Ahab: Yo…you Moby Dick---!! It’s come to my (Secret) “Great Deadly Human Torpedo Operation” to end this!!

145.
Ahab: CHARGE---!!
Ahab: Fufufu, we know that we can’t use any tricks on him. What’s left is to conversely hit his body with all your lives.
Tazawa: We…we’re all going to die like in the novel.

146.-147.
Ahab: Get much closer without making a sound.
Ahab: Right, he hasn’t noticed us yet. The first attack will be with your boat!
Togashi: Hey, he isn’t completely sane at all.
Ahab: Now go--!!
Togashi: Gee!!
Ahab: Full speed ahead; row and drive into him until your arms tear off--!!
Students: You a**hole---! This is desperation---!!

148.
Students: Uorya---!!
Ahab: We’ve done it—we’ve finally returned a blow to Moby Dick--!!
Momotarou: That’s strange. That attack now should have been avoided if it thinks it can avoid it, but.
Momotarou: Haha—well then…look.

149.
Students: Ah…aah---!!
Togashi: Wh…what, that Moby Dick has a brat?
Matsuo: R…right, it used it’s body to protect it’s child…
Momotarou: Aah, it was so it wouldn’t get it’s kid involved, even if it couldn’t counter us.
Ahab: Wahhahaha, this is an unthinkable harvest--!! Well, shall we send it along with Moby Dick the 2nd together to hell--!!
Ahab: Wh…what are you doing, all of you? If we run away now, we won’t have this chance ever again!! Quickly stab them and end this--!!
Students: ………………

150.
Ahab: What? I’ll remember this later, you---!! In this case, I’ll stab them and end this by my hand--!!
Students: Aah--!!
Matsuo: Mo…Momo……
Momotarou: Fufufu, this is sad.
Momotarou: We wouldn’t do this if this were a human parent. Fufufu, Emperor of the Sea…Moby Dick, you really are great.

151.
Ahab: Gee!!
Ahab: Y…you---!! I…I can’t swim---!!

152.
Student 1: Oh—its wounds are fine already.
Student 2: You can’t lose to us humans--!!
Student 3: Wahhahaha, their parent-child relation is healthy---!!
Togashi: Hehhehehe, it’s happy.

153.
Matsuo: Meanwhile, I haven’t seen that Ahab.
Tazawa: Well, he was probably swallowed by a wave and died.
Momotarou: Fufufu, if I were him, I’d be coming out of Moby Dick’s s**t.
Ahab: Its dark……Where am I now? Is it night already?
Ahab: My name is Captain Ahab, the tenacious man. Someday I’ll surely bring down that Moby Dick. (to himself) I am strong, but I am within Moby Dick-chan’s stomach…

TN: In the end...never trust anyone named Ahab going after a whale, I guess. Aside from that silly thought, this was a fun conclusion to probably one of the best parts of the Ocean Tour arc, mostly in sort of homaging and making fun of the classic novel in a way only a series like this can do. Sure some would say "Captain Ahab" was a man for his tragic quest, but I think Miyashita did get the whole idea that he was a nut and he probably deserved the Geppetto treatment over any respect. Besides, if the real Moby Dick was female, it probably would have been angry with how it runs amuck too. (and it does explain the whole female whale bit...I mean, it did prove it wasn't a lesbian whale when it could have back there) Sadly for the Otokojuku students, they still have one more instructor...and as if taking on homages to a demon and a tragic villain weren't bad enough, the next is...really, really strange and notable.